Nelson Caucoto (Part I)
The following transcript (statement) is from an interview that I had yesterday with human rights lawyer Nelson Caucoto (his name I write out in full because thousands of other hits on Google will appear before my blog.) The interview was conducted in Spanish. The text below is my translation (it was tape recorded, so this is not paraphrased). The primary question was how justice has advanced and/or changed in Chile since 1990. His response was lengthy. What follows is just the first part of the answer as I have yet to transcribe and translate the rest:
Until 1990, there wasn't any change, and when Chile entered the process of democratization, the justice continued exactly the same, as it did for many years more. The change began in 1997 as a product of internal changes in the Supreme Court; a change of ministers [note: same as justices]. I don't remember if it was President Aylwin or President Frei, I think it was an iniciative of Alywin's.
We had [previously had] a Supreme Court that was very Pinochetista; that had been assigned by Pinochet, and was very friendly with the militares. They applied the amnistia, la prescripcion.
I believe it was Presidente Aylwin who had the idea to change the composition of the court. But how could he change it? The president can't do this in Chile. However this didn't stop him from finding an intelligent way of changing it.
In this time they promulgated a law, a simple presidential resolution that permitted the the ministers to retire from the Corte. If they retired they were given a "premio" (award) of about 100 million CLP which is about $200,000 US. This was very effecitve because there were many ministers in the Supreme Court who retired with this award. Therefore, after leaving their seats, space was opened so that other ministers could fill them. This was a very intelligent way of getting them out of the court.
Additionally, an ammendment was introduced which added seats to the court. I don't remember if it was three or four ministers, however these ministers were not judges but rather they were lawyers and distinguished professors of law that came from outside of the judicial power to occupy a seat in the court. And this was very very beneficial for the cause of human rights because for the first time people who were not "contaminated" were in the cout. And then the court began to change their opinion about human rights.
Also, in this time [1997] there was another change and this was that the supreme court began to specialize en "salas" (rooms, courts); a civil court, a constitutional court, a mixed court, and a penal court. In the penal court they integrated ministers from outside the judicial system, which affected a tremendous change and created a penal court of at least 5 members very inclined to further the human rights cause. These ministers were the ones who permitted that the lower tribunals continued their actions in prosecuting human rights. Also, the penal court opened a whole lot of cases and permitted the tribunales to further investigations. This signified a tremendous advance, a beginning and a change in justice for Chile.
In addition to this, the detention of Pinochet in London also provoked a reaction on the domestic level y fundamentally from judges who started seeing the importance of international law, the potential of international law.
Until 1990, there wasn't any change, and when Chile entered the process of democratization, the justice continued exactly the same, as it did for many years more. The change began in 1997 as a product of internal changes in the Supreme Court; a change of ministers [note: same as justices]. I don't remember if it was President Aylwin or President Frei, I think it was an iniciative of Alywin's.
We had [previously had] a Supreme Court that was very Pinochetista; that had been assigned by Pinochet, and was very friendly with the militares. They applied the amnistia, la prescripcion.
I believe it was Presidente Aylwin who had the idea to change the composition of the court. But how could he change it? The president can't do this in Chile. However this didn't stop him from finding an intelligent way of changing it.
In this time they promulgated a law, a simple presidential resolution that permitted the the ministers to retire from the Corte. If they retired they were given a "premio" (award) of about 100 million CLP which is about $200,000 US. This was very effecitve because there were many ministers in the Supreme Court who retired with this award. Therefore, after leaving their seats, space was opened so that other ministers could fill them. This was a very intelligent way of getting them out of the court.
Additionally, an ammendment was introduced which added seats to the court. I don't remember if it was three or four ministers, however these ministers were not judges but rather they were lawyers and distinguished professors of law that came from outside of the judicial power to occupy a seat in the court. And this was very very beneficial for the cause of human rights because for the first time people who were not "contaminated" were in the cout. And then the court began to change their opinion about human rights.
Also, in this time [1997] there was another change and this was that the supreme court began to specialize en "salas" (rooms, courts); a civil court, a constitutional court, a mixed court, and a penal court. In the penal court they integrated ministers from outside the judicial system, which affected a tremendous change and created a penal court of at least 5 members very inclined to further the human rights cause. These ministers were the ones who permitted that the lower tribunals continued their actions in prosecuting human rights. Also, the penal court opened a whole lot of cases and permitted the tribunales to further investigations. This signified a tremendous advance, a beginning and a change in justice for Chile.
In addition to this, the detention of Pinochet in London also provoked a reaction on the domestic level y fundamentally from judges who started seeing the importance of international law, the potential of international law.
posted by Lauren at 2:15 PM
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